(a) Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to field of brushes for billiard or pool tables, and more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to a brush with bristle portions that have been arranged in a manner that is particularly useful for cleaning pool tables.
(b) Discussion of Prior Art
The game of billiards or pool has been enjoyed for several hundred years, with the equipment used remaining relatively unchanged. One of the key features of pool or billiard games is that they require the player to be able predict and control the motion of a pool ball over the pool table. To this end the pool or billiard equipment includes a table that produces low rolling resistance and hard balls, which also offer low rolling resistance.
The pool table typically consists of a heavy platform with a layer of thick stone or other hard material covered by felt. The hard surface produces the low rolling resistance that is required for producing the desired motion of the balls used for playing pool. The felt cover over the stone produces a soft rolling surface which reduces the effect of dirt or other debris which may fall on the hard surface, and protects the surface of the stone and the pool balls, without introducing a significant amount of rolling resistance.
The sides of the table typically include a bumper filled with a resilient material which allows the balls to bounce off of the sides of the pool table. To provide graduated levels of resiliency, the bumpers on a pool table are generally triangular in shape and overhang the borders of the pool table's surface. The bumpers are also covered with a felt material, which allows a smooth bounce or ricochet of the balls off of the sides of the table.
Therefore, it can be appreciated that in order to play billiard type games on a pool table it is important to have a clean surface, so that the rolling motion of the ball is unobstructed, allowing the ball to take the course predicted by the player. It is well known that brushes work well as tools for cleaning debris from the surface of the pool table. However, known brushes have left many of the problems encountered when cleaning the surface of a pool table unsolved. For example, U.S. Des. Pat. No. 283,851 which includes many of the standard features found in pool table brushes. The grip portion of a pool table brush is generally long and narrow, with rounded ends. The bristles near the ends of the brush are generally long and fill the area below the rounded ends of the brush. This configuration has the advantage of offering an easy to grip brush which can fit through the openings in the bumpers, leading to the pockets of the pool table. Also, by pressing firmly on the grip portion one can flatten the long bristles and allow the long bristles to reach below the bumper on the pool table, and thus clean under the bumpers of the table.
The conventional brush also includes an area of shorter bristles below the central or middle area of the brush handle. These shorter bristles serve for general sweeping of the flat surface of the table. The conventional brush has served well for many years, but it has several limitations which do affect the efficiency of the device. For example, when using the conventional brush to clean under the bumpers of the pool table one will discover that the long bristles at the ends of the brush do not easily reach the edge where the bumper and the surface of the table meet. Also, once the handle has been pressed to allow the handle to clear the edge of the bumper and allow the long bristles to reach the edge of intersection, the long bristles are cantilevered for such a great distance from the end of the handle that they are rather ineffective at driving dirt and other debris from below the bumpers.
Also, since the conventional brush includes long bristles at its ends and shorter bristles at the mid-section, it is often difficult to obtain good results while sweeping the flat areas of the table. This is primarily due to the fact that the user must bear down on the brush handle in order to get the shorter bristles to contact the surface of the table. If the user relaxes his or her grip while sweeping, the shorter bristles will be lifted off of the surface of the table, allowing the dirt and debris to pass under the shorter bristles.
Other brush designs, for example, the arrangement taught in U.S. Pat. No. 1,603,560 to Skinner teach the use of spiral bristle clumps which are supported on wires of equal length which hold the spiral bristle clumps close to the brush's handle potion to produce a pair generally flat edges in parallel which can be used to brush flat areas. The Skinner device shows the typical arrangement incorporated when using spiral bristle clumps to create a brush surface. These arrangements typically place several parallel spiral bristle clumps in tandem in order to create allow brushing over a flat surface using the spiral bristle clumps in tandem. Other examples of this general brush design are taught in U.S. Pat. No. 166,789 to Leiner and German patent number 1,603,560 to Gartner.
Other designs which take advantage of versatility of the spiral bristle clump include U.S. Pat. No. 2,183,139 to Hertzberg, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,123,044 to Hertzberg, which use removeable bristle clumps. These brushes, like the other known brush designs which use spiral clumps of bristles arrange the spiral clumps in a manner intended to allow brushing in a direction that is generally perpendicular to the length of the spiral clump.
Thus an examination of the known prior art reveals that the needs and problems encountered while cleaning have not been fully addressed by the known prior art. The approach at providing pool table brushes has produced a generally accepted brush design, which includes a handle with long bristles at the ends, the long bristles defining flat sections at the ends of the brush. Between the areas of long bristles, these brushes include a flat surface of bristles which are shorter than the bristles at the ends of the brush. Other known brush designs simply do not cater to the problems encountered while trying to clean the surface of a pool table properly. Thus there remains a need for brush that is particularly useful for cleaning the surface of a pool table or the like.
More particularly, there remains a need for a pool table brush which can effectively reach under the pool table's bumpers and which can reach the edge where the bumper meets the table's surface while providing sufficient support for the bristles such that the cleaning of these areas can be carried out in an effective manner, that can be used to brush the flat areas of the pool table, and that can reach into the pocket openings on the table's surface.
Also, there remains a need for pool table brush that can be used effectively to clean out around the table's bumpers as well as over the flat areas of the table.
There remains a need for a pool table brush which can be used to clean the flat areas, the bumpers, and the pocket entrances.
There remains a need for an inexpensive pool table brush which can effectively clean the contours of a pool table.